Dr. Erin Cameron
Dr. Erin Cameron, Saint Mary’s researcher and professor in the Department of Environmental Science, is a co-author of a just-published paper in Science Magazine titled “Tracking, Targeting, and Conserving Soil Biodiversity.”
This international project follows a paper Cameron authored in Conservation Biology last year, which determined that there are mismatches between aboveground and soil biodiversity globally, and thus protecting aboveground diversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity.
“We are working on building a global biodiversity network focusing specifically on soil,” says Cameron. “Tracking the biodiversity of soil is an important part of global environmental conservation work, and this is a long-term project that’s just beginning.”
“There is still a lot to discover about soil biodiversity and how human activities are impacting it. Organisms that live in the soil are a vital part of a functioning ecosystem.”
Cameron also had a paper published as the cover story in Science Magazine last year, in which she explained her work studying the global diversity and biogeography of earthworms.